cooking mama, square (taito) really screwed up on letting that one go, they kept hold of it in the franchises smallest selling market :3
it was odd seeing how much buzz a game like cooking mama got at its first e3, its pretty amazing its been able to be a casual title but keep interest with many gamers at the same time, something seen pretty rarely outside of nintendo titles.
theres a pretty big list of games that werent expected to be big but ended up becoming huge franchises; the sims, sim city. few originally thought grand theft auto would see the resurgance that it did with the move from top down to 3d. sega had pretty low expectations for sonic, viewed it more as a marketing ploy in america (pack in, cartoony).
a hit to me is a proven game brand/franchises, theres even more suprise "hits" if you count one hit titles from this gen (lost planet, nintendogs) but many of these titles will probably die out in 1-2 sequals, it happens every gen.
